This story tells the story of the apprenticeship of Darra Thel-Tanis from its uncertain beginnings until her tragic death on Korriban, and shows both the evolution she went through as well as the changes that transpired in her friendships.

Author's
Note: This is my first attempt at fanfiction, so please be nice. I
just recently read the Jedi Quest books in my brother's collection,
and I found myself so enthralled by Darra's character that I had to
write a bit of a tribute to her. Hopefully, you guys will enjoy
reading this as much as I liked writing it.

Reviews:
All feedback would be appreciated, but please do try to be respectful
of my feelings. I spent a lot of time on this, so just keep that in
mind when you make your comments just as I would keep it in mind when
I review your stuff.

Disclaimer:
I do not own any characters that you recognize from the Star Wars
movies or the Jedi Quest books. However, I do own a pet hamster.

A
Glorious Exit

Ever
since the day that she had been old enough to crawl around the
crèche, Darra Thel-Tanis had possessed one dream: to become a Jedi
Knight and serve the Republic as a guardian of peace. She knew that
she shared this overpowering, shining ambition with all the other
Jedi initiates that resided in the Temple. No one had to tell her
this. She just sensed it the way that she did that rain was wet.

Of
course, any sentient who wasn't blinder than a dingbat could have
spotted the desire blazing in every initiate. It was obvious in the
manner in which they carried themselves and the million little things
they did to impress any Knight that came to watch their classes. It
was apparent in the way they all exchanged endless fantasies in their
downtime about the feats they would achieve as they maintained peace
and justice in the Republic once they became Padawans and later
full-fledged Knights. It was plain in how they all clustered about
the hangar bay, plopping down on empty oil tanks and gaping at the
starships as the vessels departed into the crowded Coruscanti sky,
transporting Jedi on missions all over the galaxy. In all their
stares, the thirst they all had to leave the Temple and explore the
rest of the Republic was as clear as transparisteel.

Unfortunately,
Darra had been taught enough mathematics to comprehend that they all
couldn't get what they wanted. Every Jedi initiate had until their
thirteenth birthday to be selected as a Padawan. Those who were
chosen traveled all over the galaxy, settling disputes and protecting
all sorts of beings. Those who were not picked as apprentices were
sent to the Agri-Corps. Yes, a person who toiled in the Agri-Corps,
raising crops on worlds that had been ravaged by war or a natural
disaster, lived an existence as full of service as a Jedi, but the
gap between the excitement levels was as great as the distance
between the top of a superskytower and the permacrete surface of
Coruscant. Once someone had witnessed what they could do with a
lightsaber, a hoe wasn't remotely interesting. After somebody had
invested hours in learning diplomacy, seeds were uninspiring. Once
someone had experienced training in the Force, training in gardening
seemed meaningless.

To
Darra, it was terribly unfair that anyone should be exposed to the
heights they could attain if they were taught how to employ the Force
properly only to shove them off into the fields. This notion had been
occurring to her more and more frequently lately, and she suspected
that it might have something to do with the fact that her thirteenth
birthday was only a month away.

"I
have one month left," Darra mumbled, fiddling around with a slab of
fatty nerf steak that she had no real interest in consuming.
Normally, she liked nerf steak, however fatty, but tonight was
different. Tonight she didn't feel like eating anything. "One
month left to be chosen by someone. Then I get shunted off to the
Agri-Corps to water crops and dump manure on plants, which sounds
almost as fun as watching paint dry. Actually, I might even have less
time. Sometimes the Council has to arrange transport for initiates
that aren't accepted as Padawans a week or two before their
birthday, so I might have only one or two weeks left, now that I
think about it."

"Don't
think about it," advised Tru Veld, his slanted silver Teevan eyes
somber. Although he had been in the Raging Ronto Clan with her since
infancy, they had never been particularly tight before last week.
Before last week, she would have turned to her two best friends since
childhood, Janalea and Shannah, for consolation, but they had both
been chosen as Padawans, and so they couldn't really relate to her
concerns. As Tru hadn't been selected as an apprentice yet, he
could sympathize with her complaints as her friends couldn't.
Although Tru's tendency to voice his thoughts aloud midway through
was more than a tad off-putting, he was a compassionate and humorous
boy, and Darra was starting to wish that she had taken the time to
get to know Tru before now. "It only upsets you, and you're
thinking about it isn't doing you any good. Anyway, at least you
don't have it as badly as I do. My birthday is in only three
weeks."

"Yes,
but you've got Ry-Gaul looking at you, and I don't have anyone
that seems to be considering at me," she reminded him, an
uncharacteristically gloomy expression in her rust-colored eyes.
Typically, she was vivacious, but she couldn't be expected to
continue displaying her infectious gusto when her dreams were dying
slowly with every passing day, siphoning the life out of her.

"Soara
Antana is," Tru corrected her through a mouthful of nerf steak.
Averting her gaze from this revolting sight, Darra wondered inwardly
why all teenage males had to possess all the table manners of a
wrathful reek.

"She
was,"
amended Darra, shaking her head and bullying herself into nibbling at
her supper, because she had to keep up her energy even if it seemed
pointless to do so now that she would never become a Jedi. "She was
stopping me in the hallways between lessons and asking me about
lightsaber techniques. She was watching me like a hawk-bat in
lightsaber classes. Now she isn't. She left the Temple four days
ago. Obviously, she decided that I wasn't worthy of being her
Padawan, and who can blame her? None of the other Knights thought I
was worth teaching either." A sigh exploded from her, and she went
on in a frustrated tone, "I just wish that I knew what I had done
wrong!"

"Maybe
you did nothing wrong," Tru suggested softly. "To start a
Master-Padawan relationship, both the student and the teacher have to
be comfortable with the idea. Perhaps Soara Antana couldn't deal
with the prospect of being a Master yet. After all, she was just
Knighted. Maybe it had nothing to do with you personally."

"Maybe
banthas can fly, too," replied Darra skeptically. Then, she scolded
herself mentally. Honestly, Tru was doing the best he could to
console her, so the least she could do was demonstrate some
appreciation for his efforts. Her face breaking into a wry grin, she
apologized, "Tru, I'm sorry. My problem has nothing whatsoever to
do with you, so I had no business taking it out on you. These past
few days, you've been a real comfort to me, and I thank you for
that."

"Maybe
we'll be together," Tru remarked.

"Was
that intended to make sense?" asked Darra, her grin widening into a
smile.

"Maybe
we'll be shipped away together," he explained. "If neither of
us our chosen, perhaps we'll be dispatched to the same Agri-Corps
group, since we'll be leaving at the same time. I'd like it if we
were."

"Me
too," she agreed. If she had to serve in the Agri-Corps, it would
be better to have him beside her than to be alone. Of course, she
would have preferred to have him by her side as they went on
missions, their lightsabers glowing as they defended the Republic,
but she couldn't have all her wishes be fulfilled, as she had
discovered the hard way over the past couple of days when the dream
she had nourished of becoming Soara Antana's Padawan had been
stomped out as easily as if it were a pesky gnatfly in the rectory.

"It
could still happen," Tru informed her. Glimpsing her bemused
features, he elaborated, "I mean, you could still be chosen.
Tomorrow we have the Padawan's tournament for twelve-year-olds, and
you're the best at dueling in our age group. Someone might see you
fight and decide to take you then."

"Someone
might." She nodded her head, but she thought it was a rather frail
hope. Still, she reminded herself, it was better than nothing, so she
should throw all her energy into the tournament tomorrow. Even if, as
the laws that governed probability in this particular universe
dictated, nobody decided to accept her as Padawan, at least she would
have gone down putting up a tremendous struggle, and sometimes a
glorious exit was all a body could demand of oneself.

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